Cross Country Bikers Visit Coronado

On May 14th, Dave Cox and Cathy Allen peddled their way to Coronado Historic Site as part of their cross country bicycle trek from the Atlantic coast to the Pacific coast (and back again). Dave explained that it was an extremely engaging way to experience the United States, he said “you FEEL the country” as opposed to viewing it through a car window. They bike between 30 and 80 miles a day with an average of 50 miles per day. When they are not biking across the country Cathy is an educator, and Dave is still a “crazy guy on a bike”. The two have biked well over 10,000 miles to date, and will have been on the road for over 14 months by the time they get back home.

Dave and Cathy tent camp where they stop for the day, and about once a week they stay in a hotel. When asked what dangers they have faced while on their journey Dave responded, “nothing is scary!”. Cathy explained that they have very little preconceived notions about the areas they are traveling through, so they don’t know if they are “in the bad part of town”, instead they take each place for what it is upfront.

Many people have helped the couple on their long journey, offering food, a warm shower, or even a place to stay. Cathy says “I had not lost faith in humanity, but this has sparked it up again”. They say that the people they have met along the journey has been incredible, and that people tend to be friendlier further away from tourist destinations. Their explanation was that visitors are more a novelty off the beaten path.

The couple say that their most interesting experience was when they were riding through Utah. The two encountered the heavily publicized Bundy Ranch protest by happenstance. At the time they had no idea the details of the dispute, due to the lack of internet access in the rural areas of the Southwest. The two quickly peddled through the dispute, and continued on their way.

Dave and Cathy are regularly blogging about their adventure, as well as uploading pictures of interesting points of their trip. The two were taking a detour to downtown Bernalillo before they continued on their way to the Historic Plaza of Santa Fe. CLICK HERE to read about their visit to the Bernalillo and Santa Fe area, and CLICK HERE to get to their blog. We enjoyed their visit to Coronado Historic Site, and we wish them happy trails, and a safe trip home!